Unending
by Shibo
Summary: Sakura's daughter has something to tell her mother, but the words aren't coming out easily. Sakura soothes her by telling her a story... and gets a surprise (or maybe not) in the end.


Title: Unending   
Date: December 27, 2001 - January 5, 2002  
Author: Shibo  
E-mail: firesoule@yahoo.com  
  
Standard Disclaimer: I do not own characters from Card Captor Sakura  
nor do I have permission from CLAMP to use them in any way, but this  
fanfic is for personal gain only and is not to be used commercially or  
for any monetary profits.  
  
And here begins the one-shot...  
  
* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * * * *  
  
The gentle waves lapped at their feet as they dangled their legs in the  
pond. It was the perfect afternoon for a heart-to-heart talk, Shibo  
reflected a tad uneasily, but she was not sure she was ready to open  
her thoughts to the beloved mother sitting beside her on the tiny  
fishing pier yet. She didn't want to take the chance that the latter  
would rebuke, or even worse, utterly reject her for her hasty albeit  
understandable actions. Oh well... It was too late for regrets now.  
  
"Daffodil for your thoughts," her mother offered. Shibo took the  
yellow weed and started twirling it in her hands. She sighed deeply.  
  
"Autumn's here, okaa-chan," she murmured. It wasn't really a response,  
but it would do for the moment.  
  
"Yes, the geese are spreading their wings already." Her okaa-chan  
gazed dreamily at the V-shape in the sky, hunter-green eyes glistening  
with yearning. "The ducks are filling the air with music, and the trees  
are changing their coats at last. How I have missed this season all  
year long."  
  
"'Kaa-chan, you're doing it again," Shibo chuckled, unable to keep the  
amusement bottled. "Thank goodness 'Tou-chan isn't here. I can't handle  
BOTH of you in that mood at the same time."  
  
Her okaa-chan turned to her and smiled. Shibo caught her breath. Even  
after so many hardships over the years, her mother was still the most  
beautiful woman she knew, both physically and spiritually. Her face,  
though aged, was unlined and clear; her skin, flawless.  
  
"Shibo-koishii, you're wearing that daffodil to bits. At least tell me  
what you're thinking right now."  
  
The gentle demand was a demand nevertheless, but Shibo was reluctant to  
comply right away. "Demo 'kaa-chan... It's so hard to say it out like  
this, to lay it bare to the bone. Gomen, but I just need a little more  
time to compose my thoughts."  
  
Her mother lovingly laid a hand on her own. "My daughter, you will have  
as much time as you need. Feel no rush, please. In fact, would you like  
me to tell you a story to help pass the minutes?"  
  
Shibo searched carefully for any hints of sarcasm or condenscending  
tones in her voice and found none.  
  
"By all means, tell on."  
  
Her mother's green eyes studied her face just as carefully for a minute  
before taking on that faraway look Shibo came to associate with any  
memories of her younger days.  
  
"20 years ago," she began, "your 'tou-chan and I decided to get married  
because one, we felt we couldn't wait any longer to be united, and two,  
you were on the way." The grin she bestowed upon Shibo was startling in  
its knowledge and understanding. "When your oji-chan found out, he went  
ballistic, and to say THAT is an understatement..."  
  
* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * * * *  
  
"WHAT?!" shouted Touya. He jumped up and charged towards Syaoran, and  
would have hit him had Yukito not interfered.  
  
"To-ya!" he yelled, wrapping his arms around the tall man in an  
arm-lock. "Calm down, will you! Just listen to what they have to say!"  
  
"I'm not listening to any more crap!" Touya snarled, trying to wrench  
out of Yukito's grip. Surprisingly, the smaller man held on forcefully.  
"He's not marrying my imouto as long as I can still breathe!"  
  
"Then start holding your breath," Syaoran growled menacingly. "Or do  
you need help?" He started up, but was stopped by his little cherry  
blossom - his very ANGRY little cherry blossom.  
  
"Syaoran!" Sakura snapped. "Sit down!" As he obeyed, she got up and  
walked over to her brother. "Touya!" she said in that same voice.  
"Stop struggling and start listening to me!"  
  
Touya obeyed. As he looked at her, he almost grinned; his normally  
sweet little imouto had transformed into a fiery lioness. And how  
beautiful she was when she was furious; her cheeks were flushed, there  
was an animated spark in her bright emerald-green eyes, and her very  
hair rose and fell as energy waves passed through them. Sakura was  
trying to channel her anger out but it obviously wasn't working.  
  
"Listen, Sakura - " he began.  
  
"No, you listen to me!" she shouted. "I am eighteen years old and am  
perfectly capable of making good decisions! If I want to marry Syaoran,  
the man I have loved for almost eight years now, I'll do it! What's  
wrong with you, Touya? Why can't you approve what everyone else,  
including otou-chan and okaa-chan, have already?"  
  
"Because he's not good enough for you!" Touya spat out in Syaoran's  
direction. "He's a rude, arrogant, smug S.O.B. and I KNOW he's just  
toying with you! Look, even now he's smirking at me! Do us all a favor  
and find someone else with a heart! Anyone else!"  
  
Syaoran jumped up from the couch with an oath. "I'm not going to sit  
around and listen to you insult me! Whatever Sakura wants to do with me  
is her decision alone and you had better not poison her mind with YOUR  
goddamn ideas! Kami-sama knows I love that girl, and I'll fight to the  
death before I'll let anyone take her from me!"  
  
"No fighting!" Yukito put his foot down firmly, both figuratively and  
literally. Touya took advantage of his loosened arms and wrenched free.  
He stared at Sakura, his eyes glowing with inborn fire.  
  
"Sakura, even though you're my own imouto, if you marry - THAT," he  
furiously stabbed his finger in Syaoran's direction, "you can be sure  
I'll never talk to you again." Then he was out the door. Yukito, after  
mumbling some incoherent apology for his partner, went after him and  
left Sakura and Syaoran alone in the house.  
  
Syaoran glared in the direction Touya had gone and muttered, "Good  
riddance." As he turned back to Sakura, however, his heart stopped. She  
stood facing him, her eyes lifeless and lips trembling. Blood seeped  
slowly from her nose.  
  
"Sakura!" he cried, crossing the room sweeping her into his arms in an  
instant. When she didn't respond to anything he did, even after a firm  
slap to the face, he became worried. Her grey face and the increase of  
blood flow shook Syaoran to the core.  
  
"Hell, girl, don't pull a trick on me now," he muttered, trying to   
discover where the blood was coming from. "Kami-sama, please let her  
and the little one be all right..."  
  
* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * * * *  
  
Shibo was torn between fascination and fright, and shivered as her  
mother momentarily paused in her story.  
  
"Am I scaring you, daughter?" Her okaa-chan laughed a little. "Your  
'tou-chan told me I gave him the worst fright of his life then, but  
wait until you hear what I was doing... "  
  
* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * * * *  
  
Sakura floated freely upon nothingness. All the previous pain left her  
body, erased by the bright vortex of zero enclosed about her. Pain?  
What was pain but a paltry vassal subject to joy?  
  
She felt a feather-light touch on her face and opened her eyes, smiling  
happily as she realized who it was. That long, trailing curly  
ash-brown hair, those grey-green eyes, that wonderful laugh...  
Nadeshiko.  
  
"Okaa-chan!"  
  
Sakura threw herself into her mother's arms, crying with joy. Nadeshiko  
gently stroked her daughter's hair, at the same time infusing love and  
security into her touch.  
  
"There now, Sakura-koishii," she said softly. Sakura looked up into her  
mother's understanding eyes and sobbed once more for good measure.  
Already she felt better.  
  
"Okaa-chan, why does Touya abhorr Syaoran so? Can't he see that I love  
him with all my heart, and that he's hurting me by rejecting him?"  
  
Nadeshiko sighed, looking away. "The day I left the mortal world, your  
brother made himself your protector and vowed that you would never be  
hurt again in any way if he could help it. When your strong, dangerous  
wolf appeared on the scene - " Sakura smiled, " - Touya instinctively  
knew there was competition for your love, even though the two of you  
didn't 'hit it off' at first sight. Your brother also feared that you'd  
get hurt because he felt certain Li Syaoran wasn't all he seemed..."  
  
"But 'kaa-chan! There was never any competition, nor any danger!"  
Sakura cried, interrupting. "I love them both equally! Just in  
different ways, that's all."  
  
"Child, Touya doesn't see it that way," Nadeshiko said gently, reaching  
down to touch her daughter's face. "He was the one you had clung to in  
your childhood, the one that nursed you through most of your illnesses,  
and the one that loved your cute, childlike ways. He's just so afraid  
breaking the special bond between you two. Ever wonder why he persists  
in calling you a baka kaijuu?"  
  
Sakura made a face and stuck out her tongue, but smiled a little.  
  
Nadeshiko laughed, then became serious. "Hai. But you see, although  
Touya outwardly snaps and growls at your Syaoran, deep down, he knows  
the extent of his love for you and that if need be, he would die to  
keep you safe, which, on Touya's list, is the most important thing next  
to loving you, Yukito-chan, and your otou-chan."  
  
Sakura was touched. "Then... Touya's behavior just now - "  
  
" - was a demonstration of his love for you and his fear that Syaoran  
has come to take you away," finished Nadeshiko.  
  
"Demo 'kaa-chan," said Sakura, nearly in tears again, "he said he never  
wanted to speak to me again if I married Syaoran!"  
  
"What he really meant was, he couldn't bear NOT seeing you again and  
that he needs you in his life. My son is notorious for verbal irony."  
Nadeshiko hugged Sakura again. "You just need to tell him point blank  
that the bond of siblings you two share will never be broken."  
  
Sakura nodded. "Oh okaa-chan, you've made everything all right again."  
  
"But there's something else you wanted to ask me, isn't there?" asked  
Nadeshiko with a twinkle in her eye. Sakura nodded again, shyly.  
  
"Okaa-chan, I'd said to Touya earlier that... ano... that...demo, I  
don't REALLY know if..."  
  
"To put your heart at ease, little one, I DO approve of Syaoran. He's  
a fine young man with a most generous and giving heart." Her mother  
placed her hand on Sakura's belly. "Have many children with him,  
Sakura-koishii. The future will need your strong progeny."  
  
Sakura blushed furiously. "Hoe! Okaa-chan, do you... ano... already  
know about the little one in there?"  
  
Nadeshiko bent down and whispered something into her ear. Sakura  
blinked and looked at her, a little confused. Her mother winked. "Go  
now. Touya and Syaoran are waiting."  
  
Sakura waved to her mother and closed her eyes again. She heard a  
rushing noise, and suddenly something pulled her down... down...  
down...  
  
* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * * * *  
  
"SAKURA! Sakura! Dammit, don't leave me!"  
  
The cry of an anguished wolf rose about her ears. Sakura winced.  
  
"Koishii, I'll never leave you, but you're bursting my eardrums," she  
murmured. There was a gasp, and warm hands surrounded her cold ones.  
  
"Sakura? Can you open your eyes?" She did so, and was shocked by the  
tears in her wolf's amber orbs. She immediately kissed him and was  
returned the favor rather hungrily and passionately.  
  
"Princess Wolf? I didn't mean to scare you," she whispered comfortingly  
against her love's shoulder.  
  
"He wasn't the only one scared," two voices grumbled together. Sakura  
looked up to see Touya with Kero-chan perched on his shoulder. Yukito  
stood by the couch, grinning from ear to ear. She gently disengaged  
herself from Syaoran and stood up, wobbily. Touya quickly came forward  
and pulled her into a hard embrace.  
  
"Kami-sama, baka kaijuu, if you do that again I'll NEVER let you marry  
that wolf over there," he growled. "Nor will I let the little wolf see  
his daddy either..."   
  
Sakura started crying again, but this time, in happiness.  
  
* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * * * *  
  
Shibo and her mother sat in companionable silence for awhile, each in  
her own thoughts.  
  
"So, 'kaa-chan, why did 'ji-chan come back?" Shibo finally asked.  
  
Sakura shrugged. "He never told me the reason, but from what Yuki-chan  
says I suspect that he had felt something was wrong and came just in  
case I was in danger."  
  
"Which you were," Shibo put in.  
  
"Well, not really, if you think about it." Sakura smiled. "Your  
grandmother was with me, so everything was all right."  
  
"Demo, you were bleeding!" her daughter cried, distressed. Sakura  
reached over and pulled her into a hug.  
  
"Nosebleed from all that stress, no doubt," she assured her. They sat  
in silence once more. Shibo thought hard and knew there was something  
else bothering her.  
  
"What did oba-chan say to you?"  
  
Sakura had been humming and now stopped in the middle of the tune,  
looking surprised. "That Touya wasn't really angry at me?"  
  
"Iie. You said that after you asked her if she knew about me, she said  
something in your ear. What was it?"  
  
"Oh, that!" laughed Sakura. "Well, she told me you wanted to be named  
Shibo."  
  
Shibo looked startled. "But I wasn't even born! How could she have  
known?"  
  
Sakura spread her hands in question. "I don't know, but you must  
remember my okaa-chan wasn't living in our plane. She most likely had  
powers we never knew of."  
  
"Why would I want to be named Shibo, though?" she mused out loud.  
  
"Ask that to yourself, my daughter," Sakura said with a smile. "It  
means 'yearning', right? Well, what are you yearning for?"  
  
Shibo thought about that and sighed a moment later. She turned to fully  
face Sakura. "Okaa-chan, I'm ready to tell you what I dragged you out  
here for this morning..." She looked at her mother, who was smiling  
encouragingly. "I'm pregnant... Demo, it's not like I made a mistake or  
anything," she rushed on to say. But one look at Sakura told her all  
she needed to know.  
  
Her mother hugged her again. "Congratulations, my yearning. I've waited  
a while for those words."  
  
Shibo was shocked. "You mean... you knew?"  
  
"*I* did, but I doubt your 'tou-chan even has an inkling," laughed  
Sakura. Becoming gentle, she continued, "Is the father who I think he  
is?"  
  
Shibo nodded quickly, and blushed. "We were going to get married  
anyway, but somehow waiting was just a bit too much. Gomen - "  
  
"Don't!" said Sakura sharply, looking into her eyes directly. "Don't be  
sorry unless you regret the child within you!"  
  
"Never," whispered Shibo. "I yearn for it."  
  
"There now." Sakura kissed her brow. "That's what you've been wanting,  
isn't it? A baby. A family of your own."  
  
"It's just that it seems as if my love for my Koishii has burst into a  
million bubbles! I have so much love inside of me, and... wo ai ta tai  
duo le!" Overcome by emotion, Shibo lapsed back into her native  
Chinese-Japanese mix. "Okaa-chan, ta shi wo de shen ming! Hao xiang, ru  
guo wo mei you huai yun, wo jiu hui si diao! Ni dong me?"  
  
"I understand, nu er, I truly do," said Sakura softly. "Remember, I had  
the same problem when I was about your age... or gift, as I'd call   
it..."  
  
Shibo nodded but couldn't speak, and hugged Sakura one more time. A  
whistle alerted them of two men coming up the tiny pathway, and as they  
all stood together around her, Shibo cried joyfully. Finally, she was  
complete.  
  
* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * * * * *  
  
Notes:  
  
Wow! My first CCS one-shot, finished within the week! Just some editing  
going on here and there...  
  
I'm not entirely sure I like the way "Unending" keeps jumping around  
time. But I am absolutely ECSTATIC over the fact that it is the first  
fanfic I did NOT have writer's block on! Yay for me! *clears throat*  
Yes, so anyway, I love writing about S+S and I *know* I messed their  
characters up big here. All this sap and angst just seems so OOC... but  
it's MY story so I can do whatever I want with it!!! MUAHAHAHA!!!   
  
On a more serious note, I believe this is a milestone in writing for  
me. I think the ideas came so readily because I could relate to the  
fictional Shibo, and I could write about the closeness she shared with  
Sakura because I've experienced that feeling myself with MY mother.  
It's like they say - everything is parallel.  
  
The following is a list of Japanese terms I've used in "Unending" and  
their definitions:  
  
Ano = Umm...  
Demo = But  
Koishii (or is it Koiishi? I've seen it spelled both ways) = Beloved  
Oba-chan = Grandmother  
Oji-chan = Uncle  
Okaa-chan = Mother (Mom)  
Otou-chan = Father (Dad)  
  
That bit of Mandarin Chinese I used at the end means this:  
  
Wo ai ta tai duo le! = I love him too much!  
Ta shi wo de shen ming! = He's my life!  
Hao xiang, ru guo wo mei you huai yun, wo jiu hui si diao! Ni dong me?  
= If I didn't have his child, I'd die (because of too much love)! Do  
you understand?  
Nu er = daughter  
  
May your days be filled with sap and angsty fanfiction! =D  
  
^!^ Shibo. 


End file.
